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Case Study Lesson: The Drawbacks of PayPal for Recurring Billing

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In this week’s new Subscription Site Insider Case Study we examine the lessons learned when a veteran subscription marketer launched his own subscription site last fall. Michael McCurdy, formerly of TheLadders.com, shared great stories about how he adapted his content development and marketing strategies to deal with surprises after the launch of TestingMom.com, a site to help parents prepare their kids for elementary school placement and intelligence tests. His most significant finding is also our No. 1 lesson learned this…

Case Study Lesson: The Drawbacks of PayPal for Recurring Billing Read More »

Lessons from a Subscription Site Launch: Audience & Content Surprises, Plus a PayPal Nightmare

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Michael McCurdy, formerly of TheLadders.com, shares his biggest lessons learned from the launch of his own subscription site. Includes great tips for SEO and for boosting conversions with a site-overview video. Plus, he explains why you shouldn’t launch with PayPal for payment processing.

Lessons from a Subscription Site Launch: Audience & Content Surprises, Plus a PayPal Nightmare Read More »

Print Newsletter Grows Subscription Base by Launching Membership Site: Lessons Learned

Case Studies, Subscriber Acquisition, Subscriber Only /

Insider spoke with Children’s Book Insider co-founder Jon Bard to learn how he transitioned his print newsletter to a membership site. Includes lessons on content, communicating the change to members, and dealing with a WordPress-based membership site

Print Newsletter Grows Subscription Base by Launching Membership Site: Lessons Learned Read More »

How SmartCredit Uses Partnerships, Savvy Direct Marketing and Unique Services to Stand Out from Competitors

Case Studies, Subscriber Acquisition, Subscriber Only /

Ethan Taub, CMO of SmartCredit, describes how his site is thriving in the competitive consumer credit reporting/monitoring market thanks to co-branded partnerships and better direct marketing. Includes must-copy tactics for B2C subscription sites, such as thank-you page offers.

How SmartCredit Uses Partnerships, Savvy Direct Marketing and Unique Services to Stand Out from Competitors Read More »

How a B2B Info Services Provider Turns $300 Online Subscribers to $60,000 Corporate Accounts

Case Studies, Revenue and Sales, Subscriber Only /

See how RISI grew from B2B trade publishing roots into the leading information services company for the pulp and paper industry. Insider spoke with Matt Graves, SVP Pulp & Paper Division, and Thom Smith, Director of Marketing, to learn how the company combines direct marketing with a corporate sales force to step up customers from $300-$400 online news subscriptions to $50,000+ corporate site licenses for a portfolio of services

How a B2B Info Services Provider Turns $300 Online Subscribers to $60,000 Corporate Accounts Read More »

A Potted Financial Analysis of Murdoch’s Upcoming iPad Daily: 130,000 Paying Readers Needed Per Week?

FInance, Industry Announcements, Subscriber Only /

According to James Murdoch’s remarks at the DLD Conference in Germany this week (as reported here in TechCrunch), the company’s hired 126 journalists for its upcoming iPad Daily.That’s a lot of journalists. I’m assuming that many of these are stringers or part-timers. That given, let’s run some numbers, shall we? 126 journalists @ an average of $45kyear incl. tax & tags = $5,670,00010 other staff (our estimate) @75k each = $750,000Offices, legal, insurance, PR, tech, etc.…

A Potted Financial Analysis of Murdoch’s Upcoming iPad Daily: 130,000 Paying Readers Needed Per Week? Read More »

Highlights from WishList’s Membership Website Awards – the Wishies for Self-Publishers

Industry Announcements, Subscriber Only /

Spurred on by the recession and ease of self-publishing, thousands of small-time self publishers have been entering the paid membership site arena in the last 24 months. I thought it would be fun to take a break from examining mainstream paid content publishers’ businesses to take a look at what the self publishing crowd is doing these days. Out of a field of a dozen or so, WishList is one of the better-known software firms selling…

Highlights from WishList’s Membership Website Awards – the Wishies for Self-Publishers Read More »

B2C Boating Enthusiast Site Combines Magazine-Style Articles with Multimedia Content to Attract Subs and Ad Revenues

Case Studies, Subscriber Acquisition, Subscriber Only /

Publisher Glen Justice describes how Mad Mariner created a successful consumer boating enthusiast site with a hybrid business model. Discover how their experiments with social media and audience surveys are driving lots of traffic — and see our five suggestions for how they could improve lead gen, conversions, site design, and ad sales.

B2C Boating Enthusiast Site Combines Magazine-Style Articles with Multimedia Content to Attract Subs and Ad Revenues Read More »

How Compete.com Uses Search Marketing to Attract 3x More Traffic Than Competitors & Turns Those Visitors Into Paid Subscribers

Case Studies, Subscriber Acquisition, Subscriber Only /

Insider’s interview with Sr. Internet Marketing Manager Drew Fortin reveals how Compete.com uses SEO to get double and triple the amount of traffic as its more-established competitors. Also discover how a homepage design borrowed from B2C subscription database services is one of the site’s most effective subscription marketing tactics — and something every business information database should try.

How Compete.com Uses Search Marketing to Attract 3x More Traffic Than Competitors & Turns Those Visitors Into Paid Subscribers Read More »

Which is the Worst Online Newspaper Paywall? Our Little Internal Contest….

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The #2 piece of feedback we’ve been getting from our NAA (Newspaper Association of America) training webinar on paywall design, is everyone wants to see an example of a well-designed newspaper paywall (presumably so they can consider copying it.) Although our training session featured copy-worthy samples from other types of subscription content sites, the only way we featured newspaper paywalls was to show what’s wrong with them.We’re not normally negative people. We’ve tried really hard to…

Which is the Worst Online Newspaper Paywall? Our Little Internal Contest…. Read More »

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